TIS-100 is a puzzle video game and programming game developed by Zachtronics Industries. The game has the player develop mock assembly language code to perform certain tasks on a virtualized 1970s computer that has been corrupted. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux personal computers in July 2015.

Gameplay[edit]

Within TIS-100, the player is said to have come across a malfunctioning TIS-100 computer ('Tessellated Intelligence System') and its manual, based on early computers of the 1980s. The computer is presented to the player as twelve separate processing nodes laid out in a four-by-three grid. Each node has a single processor register to store a numerical value as well as a backup register. Nodes also hold their own assembly language program as entered by the user. The assembly language, a simplified version of real-world assembly languages, allows the node to accept external input or a numerical value sent from an adjacent node, perform basic math and logic operations, store and backup the current data value, and then send results to an adjacent node or to the program's output. Later puzzles introduce stack nodes and an output to a simple 5-color graphics display.

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The player is presented with a series of puzzles that require them to program the nodes to perform specific actions on a set of numbers from one or more input terminals to produce pre-determined output at other terminals. For example, one task requires the player to double the value of the input at the output terminal. The game presents the list of inputs and the target output values that it is expecting and requires the players to develop the code for each node to match this; if during execution the output nodes receive unexpected outputs, the execution will cease and the player will have to rework their solution. Not all nodes are available in certain puzzles, so the player will need to route around these nodes. The game offers the player the ability to step through the execution of the code and insert debugging statements to determine logic issues within their code. Once the target output conditions are met, the player is considered to have solved the puzzle. The nodes that are disabled in puzzles contain cryptic messages related to the narrative of the game and which contain more information that can be accessed when the entire game is completed.^[1]

As with previous Zachtronics games such as SpaceChem and Infinifactory, once the player completes a puzzle, their solution is compared to other players through online leaderboards. The player is ranked based on the number of nodes used, the number of instructions within their code, and the number of instruction cycles used. The game allows the player to return to earlier puzzles to better their solution. The game launched in early access in June 2015 with about 25 puzzles within the game,^[2] and another 25 were added by the time of its official release the following month.^[3]

The game also includes undocumented instructions. HCF is the first known undocumented instruction.

Development[edit]

TIS-100 was based on an idea that Zach Barth, the founder and lead game designer of Zachtronics, had years prior. The concept was named The Second Golden Age, which was set in the Middle East sometime in the near future, in which the player would program nanobots to be injected into the player-character's blood as to be able to solve various types puzzles akin to Myst. One aspect would be the player-character coming across a used electronics store and finding an old computer with corrupted areas, which as they worked to clear up, would discover these corrupted areas contained the core of an artificial intelligence. While developing Infinifactory, Barth wanted to try to start work on The Second Golden Age but found the effort, concurrent with Infinifactory, was far too difficult. However, he had completed the assembly-language puzzle aspect, and decided to go ahead and refine only that portion as a full game.^[4] To finish off the game, he worked with Keith Holman to write the language's manual inspired by similar computer manuals of the time, and with Matthew Burns to craft a simple story around the game. They used concepts from a Mondo 2000 infographic based on cybertech fashions to write the tongue-in-cheek narrative for the game and manual.^[4]

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TIS-100 was released into Steam Early Access on June 1, 2015. Barth stated that he took a similar approach to Early Access as with Infinifactory, providing a game that was nearly complete to gain suggestions and improvements and the ability to add more content before releasing the final product. Barth estimated that the Early Access phase would last 1–2 months.^[5] The final version was released on July 20, 2015.^[6]

Reception[edit]

Singularity bts. In its article 'Can Videogames Teach You Programming', Rock Paper Shotgun called the game's technology 'relevant' and said 'if you can survive its stiff challenge, you’re ready to code'.^[7]

See also[edit]

• Core War, a programming game involving assembly language
• Connection Machine, a real life supercomputer family with a similar architecture

References[edit]

1. ^Hudson, Laura (June 9, 2015). 'Program a strange, corrupted computer and discover its secrets'. Boing Boing. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
2. ^'TIS-100'. Zachtronics Industries. June 1, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
3. ^Matulef, Jeffrey (July 21, 2015). 'Zachtronics' programming puzzler TIS-100 now out of Early Access'. Eurogamer. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
4. ^ ^abWawro, Alex (June 9, 2015). ''Things we create tell people who we are': Designing Zachtronics' TIS-100'. Gamasutra. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
5. ^O'Conner, Alice (June 1, 2015). 'SpaceChem Dev's TIS-100: A Programming Puzzler'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
6. ^Estrada, Marcus (July 20, 2015). 'TIS-100 Just Launched Out of Early Access'. Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
7. ^Sayer, Matt (October 3, 2016). 'Can Videogames Teach You Programming'. Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved January 23, 2017.

External links[edit]

I played the original CoAE when it came out, then totally forgot about Zach until SpaceChem came out, when i rediscovered CoAE:MO (and also found out that he made Infiniminer: who knew?). I played all of the SpaceChem campaign and have 1 puzzle on ResearchNet, so when I heard this was coming out I was pretty psyched: now onto my reaction:.I thought the difficulty curve in this was a lot better than it was in SpaceChem: For me the last couple puzzles on the last planet in SC where orders of magnitude harder than rest of the game, where as the Homeward Fleet in this ramped up pretty well from the end of the previous mission.There were a couple of blocks that I was really hoping we could get that we didn't. You can make do without them of course (one of the great things about IF vs SC) but I would have really wanted a Latch/Memory Cell as a single block, as well as a sticky pusher.I liked the story better in IF vs SC: SC's storyline felt rushed and cliched, and the fact that there was so little of it made it worse.

I did notice the tie-ins to SC that were in here, especially the bit with the fishcake (:P).This is probably just me reacting to Skip Drive, but the I never really got over the wonky physics. Not that I see a better we to do it, but the diagonal blocks that sort of count as a block and sort of don't are very weird. Also, when multiple-block structures are sitting on multiple conveyors, the logic seems very inconsistent and odd (and don't get me started about rotators).The best thing about IF is that the material blocks and the factory blocks obey the same rules, unlike in spacechem where the waldos exist in a separate layer from the atoms.

I think the coolest thing in IF is building factories with moving parts; it means so much more is possible.I guess that's all I have to say. Is anyone interested in starting a puzzle tournament like they have on sometimes?. 1) For a single multiblock on multiple conveyors, the logic is like this:. within an axis (north-south or east-west), the direction that has the most conveyors wins, and if there are equal number of conveyors pointing in each direction, then it does not move. UNLESS the multiblock is blocked from moving in one of those directions, in which case the unblocked direction wins even if there are more conveyors pointing in the blocked direction.

one axis (it's easy to determine by experiment on each level) is dominant. Factories with moving part are awesome! They're useful for all kinds of cool stuff. I find the ones with free-floating parts even cooler than the ones with stuff stuck to pushers. They're a delight to invent.what's the fishcake about?

I basically skipped spacechem's story.rotators are very straightforward - if you would wedge into something while rotating, don't rotate (mind that the edges go a tiny bit into neighboring blocks, so sometimes you can't have blocks right near it). And, once rotated, it doesn't rotate until the object has come off the rotator.